Organic Chemistry As a Second Language, 3e: First Semester Topics

This book is fantastic to add to your organic chem class as practice and help understanding concepts. I’ve learned more and understood more from this book than the textbook.

My copy came with 20 missing pages but nonetheless, explanations are great. Very concise and saves my study time! Speaking from a 4th year biochemistry major relearning ochem for the mcat.

Such an amazing and well written book, which a lot of explanations about the topics in chem 1. Will definitely be buying the version for chem 2. If you're going into chem 1, buy this and read it along with your textbook and lectures. Amazing!

This book is my absolute saving grace! Only halfway through the semester so far, but even when the teacher is going through slides too fast in lecture, I feel very comfortable knowing that this book will walk me through the Organic Chemistry lecture material in a very easily comprehendible manner. Absolutely cannot recommend this book enough

I am a postbacc pre-med student with a flawless GPA (prior to Orgo that is)... I began taking the course, thinking "How bad can this be?". Well, it got really ugly. I failed my first two exams, and my average dropped to a "C-", with perfect scores on my homework assignments. Thinking that it was all over, and that I'd have to retake the course again, I figured I could kiss med school and my future goodbye....And that's when I browsed Amazon. I found the previous version of this book, with rave reviews... I thought, "Why not give it a shot...? I have nothing left to lose at this point." I bought this current edition, read it cover-to-cover (doing the supplied problems along the way), and looked at my course materials again... Somehow all of it made sense!I did extremely well on my third exam (received the highest grade in my class), and the ACS final (I'll update class statistics once/if I find out). I haven't received my final grade yet, but it looks like it's going to be around a "B/B+". I couldn't have done it without this book! I just wish I had found it earlier, so that I could have done well from the beginning, and finished with an "A"... Luckily, Professor Klein wrote an Orgo 2 book as well, so I know I can get an early start next semester.Professor Klein's books are like training wheels for Orgo. Sure, you can learn to ride a bike without training wheels... But at the end of the day, getting a bad grade in Orgo (which subsequently brings your entire science GPA down) is much more painful than a few scrapes and bruises. This book teaches you HOW to study for Orgo (efficiently), and I think most people will realize that they were doing it all wrong.I normally don't write reviews, and I purchase things on Amazon all the time. Take it for what it's worth, and buy this book!

Nothing special about it. It was really helpful in my first semester of OCHEM. Not so much in my second semester. It was great though. I would definitely recommend this to a friend. (And it’s cheaper than most places on Amazon)

Before I took my first semester of Organic Chemistry at a Top 20 US News University (read: intro classes can be rather difficult), I picked up this book based on the insanely positive reviews it garnered (and because I was so scared from what my upperclassmen peers told me about the course). After earning an A- in the course deemed a weed-out at my school (as I witnessed firsthand at the end of the semester as the number of pre-med students dwindled), I can definitely see why this little book as received so much praise.The author really does have a talent at devolving the most difficult concepts into easy-to-understand terms. He plainly EXCELS at explaining everything up to the section on reactions. There are TONS of examples with the key in the back, making this book more of an integrated workbook than a simple explanation guide, which helps immensely. The sections on relative acidity and Sn and E reactions were wonderfully clear and helpful.My only critique of this book is that while the most basic organic reactions are covered (the ones that absolutely everyone in any Orgo course would need to know at any university), he didn't touch up on some that our professor said were basic. Obviously that's fine, because that's the purpose of going to class and buying the textbook, but just something to note!A word of advice--definitely buy this book, but also get your textbook and read it. As I just mentioned, there are going to be things that this book simply cannot, by its nature, cover. This book goes miles as a companion on the long, but manageable, road to understanding organic chemistry.

Overall the book was helpful, got an 85 on my first midterm with it. However, there are several typos throughout, grammatical errors, and in several cases there will be missing structures, for example “observe the two structures below” and only one has been printed, making it very difficult to understand. This can be a problem since every topic may only have a handful of example situations. If they can have someone proofread the book for future prints, it will make it so much more helpful.

First used a pdf version.This book is such a revelation and unique writing style and teaching style thru this writing works so well and engaging.Had to have this as a physical copy. If you're learning Orgo. This book and other by this author is a MUST have. You'll learn with enjoyment and ease. Posted packaged well. Came with no damage with is rare these days. Perfect purchase

this book is amazing, i am terrible at chemistry and am finding it so easy to learn basic topics from this book - i haven't even touched my course required textbook because this book is so much easier to understand. I highly recommend it for people like me who are anxious about chemistry and find it difficult to comprehend.

Gift for a relative in 2nd year of bio-chem degree. She loves it.